Two Years Too Long

Hello again, remember me? I’ve been away from this space for a minute (or two….years). Once, I wrote here frequently, documenting what I felt was worth sharing with the world on a fairly constant basis – and then, life happened. Cliché, I know, but it’s the simplest way to explain the absence. The more complex answer boils down to stress and stressors that I put on myself and stressors that were put on me externally. For a while, the writing lost its appeal, and my day-to-day didn’t feel like it needed one more “deadline,” one more “task,” one more stressor piled on it. I lost motivation to find the words and to make the time to post. Over the past few months, though, the writing itch has been inching its way back, and after dealing with several domain name issues, I’ve picked up the pen (or rather keyboard), and sat back down in front of you to share in this space once again.

I can’t promise the posts will be regular at this point. In all honesty, this is probably not the best time in my work-life to be picking the blog back up. I spend my day-to-day serving as a Rural Community and Economic Developer serving a 12-county area roughly the size of the state of New Jersey’ and the month of March is by far my busiest of the year with a major grant deadline, and 16 (and counting) grant applications to write. But maybe it’s because I’ve been doing all that writing – and will be continuing that writing for the next 3 weeks until the deadline passes, that I want to carve back into this space. This non-work related space, where I can write for myself.

I’ve spent the past few hours reading my back posts and remembering my voice. Remembering that I’m honestly very proud of the content I once put forth and that maybe, it’s time to give that another go. So, over the next few days, I’m going to be working on my archives. Culling posts that are no longer relevant, and relinking lost photos for the posts that I want to save. I’m also going to roll out a new archive system, which means you’ll be able to find those old posts – and posts like them- much easier. I’m also looking forward and planning what I’ll be sharing. Want a sneak peak? Here are just a few of the things on the horizon for the next few weeks:

• Spring StrawBale Garden Prep – What year are we on again? 6?
• Quilting – sew many quilts & quilted items (see what I did there?)

and the big one……

Are you ready?

I’m headed back to Ecuador in May! So of course, I’ll once again be sharing my pre-trip planning, and my trip once I return. The other fun thing I’ll be sharing leading up to my trip is the “individual tour” I took with Compassion International in the fall of 2016 – see the photos at the beginning of this post.

I’m looking forward to putting together several posts about the individual tour, and how it differed from the group tours I’ve been on in the past. For the 2016 visit to South America, I saw all 4 of my (& my mother’s) sponsored children and went to three different countries over a two week period. (and yes, I would absolutely do it again – in a heartbeat).

So, with a semblance of a plan in place, and a renewed desire to be back, I hope you’ll forgive me for my extended absence.

And I hope you’ll join me as I continue to navigate life with elephant grace.